On a night Iowa State sorely needed a win, it was unfamiliar names playing in an unfamiliar system that rose to the challenge.

The ISU volleyball team (12-9, 4-6 Big 12) knocked off No. 22 Kansas State (20-4, 7-3 Big 12), handing the Wildcats their first road loss of the season.

The Cyclones did not just beat the Wildcats, they swept them, sending the feral felines back to Manhattan, Kansas, licking a plethora of ISU inflicted wounds.

Redshirt sophomore Morgan Kuhrt and freshman defensive specialist/setter Monique Harris led the way for an Iowa State team that was looking for a spark and found it by way of a change in scheme.

“[It was] a different system than we have ever trained, a 6-2 system, but a little goofy because of the way we used it,” laughed ISU volleyball coach Christy-Johnson Lynch. “I felt like we would either look very smart or very stupid tonight and I honestly did not know which one it was going to be, so I was glad we looked smart.”

Johnson-Lynch appeared more than intelligent as she confused Kansas State with a system that Iowa State failed to implement appropriately against Texas only three days before.

The Cyclones threw the 6-2 at the Longhorns in the fourth set of a match in which they trailed 2-1, hoping it would help them snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

It did not work out the way the ISU coaching staff had planned as Texas slammed the door on a possible Iowa State win and the Cyclones looked disorganized to say the least.

Yet, against Kansas State, the opposite was true. Two primary reasons for that were 14 kills from Kuhrt and 23 assists from Harris.

“Monique Harris did a really nice job,” Johnson-Lynch said. “I thought Kuhrt had a great night.”

Harris had not seen the floor frequently throughout the Big 12 season as Iowa State stuck to a 5-1 almost exclusively, incorporating only one setter into the lineup at a time.

Harris played behind sophomore setter Suzanne Horner, not affording her many chances to showcase her skills. In the 6-2, however, Harris found her opportunity.

“It was really exciting to get the chance and I am just glad I went out and helped my team,” Harris said. “I just want to win.”

The Cyclones did win, and as important to their success as the play of Harris was the absence of anger or jealousy from Horner, who still played in all three sets, but whose role as the primary setter was diminished by Harris’s presence on the court.

“[Horner] goes from setting all the way around to setting half the time,” Johnson-Lynch said. “[She] spent no energy on why, she just embraced it and I just could not be more proud of the way [she] responded to a different role.”

The team effort manifested itself not only in a win over a ranked opponent as Iowa State’s season teetered on the edge of a 3-7 record in Big 12 play, but in a sweep of that ranked opponent, something Kuhrt said added up to a meaningful difference.

“This is a huge win for us and it really shows us what we can do and where we can go in the next month,” Kuhrt said. “It is huge that we swept. I think just mentally it would have been harder to go into a fourth and fifth set and I think to sweep them in three was a huge confidence boost.”

Iowa State hopes to bring that confidence along with them as they take the 6-2 system on the road for their next two matches against West Virginia and Oklahoma on Nov. 8 and Nov. 12, respectively.